By ABC NEWS
A state trooper was wounded and a motorist killed early Tuesday in an exchange of gunfire along an interstate highway in southern Illinois, police said.
Illinois State Police said preliminary findings indicate that troopers were responding to help a motorist at about 3 a.m. along Interstate 64 when an altercation happened.
Police said the motorist displayed a firearm and exchanged gunfire with troopers, leaving the suspect dead and a 16-year-veteran trooper hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooting happened near Mt. Vernon, the Jefferson County seat, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, closing the interstate’s eastbound lanes for more than three hours.
State police said the agency’s own internal investigators are handling the case, and no more details were available to be released.
Meanwhile, there were 118 officers killed in the line of duty in 2022 – 60 were killed during a felony and 58 were killed accidentally, according to the FBI.
2021 saw one of the highest years for officer line-of-duty deaths with 73.
“The five- and 10-year comparisons show an increase of three felonious deaths when compared with the 2018 figure (57 officers) and an increase of 33 deaths when compared with 2013 data (27 officers),” the report said.
Of the 60 officers that died in 2022, 49 were killed with a gun.
The average age of the officers who were feloniously killed was 39.
The officers had served in law enforcement for an average of seven years at the time of their deaths.
Ten of the identified suspects in the officers’ deaths had prior criminal arrests, and two were under judicial supervision at the time of the incidents, according to the FBI report.
At this point in 2023, 20 law enforcement officers have been fatally wounded and eight have died in accidents, federal data shows.
